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Friday, December 11, 2009

I'm a CAD guy. I know, it's hard to believe, but I am. I love making things in CAD, it's how I roll. 3D CAD is very cool too. I also like Google. I use several of their products. One that I haven't used as much is Google Sketchup. I've toyed with it a bit here and there over the years but I have never done any serious work with it. Until now!

I have decided to through my hat in the ring in Google's latest competition, Model Your Town. Essentially this contest is a brilliant way for Google to increase their meager 3D Building content on Google earth for free! Or for at least at the cost of a party for the winner, some press, and a $10,000 tax deduction in the form of a check to the winners home town school! It's a great idea.

Modelers basically have until March 1st to submit their models. they have to be simple enough for Google Earth, yet accurate. they also have to have realistic photo renderings on them. So they have to actually look like the buildings from your town. And, you have to provide meta data for each building.

Easy enough right? If it were just one or two buildings then it would be a piece of cake. Or if it were just random CAD Gurus from here and there, I'd have a huge shot at winning! After all, I've been using CAD for 16 years now! But it seems that cities from all over the world are getting into it! Not to mention that big architectural firms are jumping in too! At last count, it seems that there are at least 200+ entries at the time I am writing this!

The good news is that you can form a team to do your work. So, my son and i are teaming up on this project to try and win 10 grand for the school in our town. It also seems that other teams consist of Architectural firms, or what you might call "experts". We are feeling a bit like David amongst several world wide Goliaths here, but that's ok with us because David one with a single stone.

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About Me

Brian Benton is a Senior Engineering Technician, CAD Service
Provider, trainer, technical writer and blogger. He has over 20 years of
experience in various design fields (Mechanical, Structural, Civil, Survey,
Marine, Environmental), has a degree in Design Drafting and is well versed in
many design software packages (CAD, GIS, Graphics). He is Cadalyst Magazine’s Tip Patroller and
writer, formerly the AUGI HotNews Production Manager, Sybex Mastering AutoCAD
contributing author, and Infinite Skills AutoCAD training video author as well
as a member of the Autodesk Expert Elite Program. You can find Brian at his website at cadablog.com.